KEY TERMS
•
Sanctuaries
•
Rosettes
•
Black-figure
•
Red-figure
•
Olpe
•
Caryatids/Atlantids
•
Kantharos
•
Symposium
•
Contrapposto
•
Douris
•
Stoa
•
Gigantomachy
•
Titanomachy
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
 City-states
 Athens was commercial and cultural center
 Sparta was center of war
 Only men could be citizens
 Polytheistic
 Athletics and beauty were important
 Buildings were more important aesthetically than those in Egypt
Ancient Greek Art
Can be classified into the following categories:
Geometric Period ca. 900-700 B.C.E.
Orientalizing Period ca. 725-600 B.C.E.
Archaic Period ca. 625-480 B.C.E.
--- Greeks defeat Persians 480-479 BCE ---
Early Classical Period ca. 480-450 B.C.E.
High Classical Period ca. 450-400 B.C.E.
Late Classical Period ca. 400-330 B.C.E.
Hellenistic Period ca. 330-31 B.C.E.
Ancient Greek Art
Mesopotamian = Worship
Egyptian = Afterlife
Greek = Humanism
The Geometric Period
The beginning of Greek art is found in
painted pottery and small scale
sculpture.
Artists established different categories
of shapes of ceramic vessels- most
important was the amphora - twohandled vase used to carry wine and oil
Around 800 BC, pottery began to move
away from purely non-objective designs
- ornamental figures.
Dipylon Vase was a grave monument bottom has holes through which liquid
offerings filtered down to the dead
below- done in remembrance rather
than to appease the soul of the dead.
Geometric Krater from the Dyplon Cemetery
Athens, Greece, ca. 740 BC
The Geometric Period
The vase functions as a grave marker
depicting the funeral procession of an
obviously well respected individual.
The magnitude of his funeral procession
speaks to the wealth and position of the
deceased family in the community.
Contains no reference to an afterlife
The nature of the ornamentation of these
early works has led art historians to
designate these as GEOMETRIC. (all
empty spaces are filled with circles and
M-shaped ornament. No open spaces.)
Geometric Krater from the Dyplon Cemetery
Athens, Greece, ca. 740 BC
Geometric Krater from the
Dyplon Cemetery
Athens, Greece, ca. 740 BC
The Geometric Period
Hero and Centaur ca. 750-730 BC
The image of the man is thought to
be Herakles battling the Centaur.
This image demonstrates the
Geometric artist not being limited to
depicting scenes from daily life.
The centaur is a purely Greek
invention that has obviously created
a problem for this artist, as no such
creature has ever been seen.
Even at the beginning of Greek
figural art, we can see the instinct
for the natural beauty of the human
figure . This concept is reflected in
the fact that Greek athletes
exercised without their clothes and
even competed nude in the Olympic
Games from very early times.
Orientalizing Period
Late 7th cent.
BCE
Olpe-Black Figure
Greek, Corinth, 650 - 625 B.C.
Terracotta
12 15/16 x 6 11/16 in.
Rosettes
The Orientalizing Period
This is an example of a kore
figure. (plural korai)
It is still uncertain whether this
figure was meant to represent
a mortal or a deity.
The hand across the chest is
thought to be an indication of
prayer, referencing that this is
a probably a kore.
The image has a
monumental quality, but it is
only about 2 feet tall (still
larger that the bronze
statuettes of the era)
Lady of Auxerre, statue of a goddess or kore
Greece ca. 650 - 625 BC
Archaic Period
600-480 BCE
Not what we would expect “Archaic” to mean.
Simply means it is the beginning of formalized art.
Archaic Period
600-480 BCE
Reconstruction of the Sanctuary of Apollo, Delphi
Archaic Period
600-480 BCE
Temple of Hera I (Roman Paestum) 550-540 BCE
Archaic Period
600-480 BCE
Treasury of the Siphnians, Delphi
Archaic Period
600-480 BCE
West Pediment at the Temple of Aphaia
Dying Warriors
The Archaic Period
Male figures called
kouros meaning
“youth” were always
depicted nude.
This particular kouros
figure was said to have
a funerary purpose, as
it once stood over a
grave in the countryside
near Athens.
Statues such as this
replaced the Geometric
vases as the preferred
form of grave marking.
Despite the similarity with the
Egyptian prototype for figurative
sculpture, these kouros figures differ
in many significant ways…
Kouros
Greece ca. 600 BC
The Archaic Period
How are
Mentuemhet
and the
Kouros
different?
Mentuemhet,
Egypt, Dynasty XXVI, 650 BC
Kouros
Greece ca. 600 BC
The Archaic Period
•This work was found in
the acropolis in fragments.
• The sculpture contains
an inscription in the base
that dedicates the creation
of the statue to a man
named Rhonbos, of whom
many think the calf bearer
is a portrait.
• Significant is the beard
and cloak, which clearly
removes this figure from
the idea of male youth that
the kouros figures
contained.
• From this time on,
Archaic sculpures seem to
smile- even in
inappropriate contexts
•The calf’s legs join with the hands
of the figure to form an “X” that
unites the two both physically and
formally.
•“Archaic smile” indicates life.
Calf Bearer (Moschophoros)
Athens, Greece ca. 560 BC
(Anavysos) Kroisos
Anavysos, Greece ca. 530 BC
The Archaic Period
•Around 530 BC a man named
Kroisos died a hero’s death in battle.
His grave was marked by this figure.
• The inscription at the base of this
statue read: “stay and mourn at the
tomb of dead Kroisos, whom raging
Ares destroyed one day as he
fought in the foremost ranks”
• The “archaic smile” is present, as
is the Egyptian stance, but the
naturalism of the body far exceeds
any figurative sculpture that
preceded it.
• Head is no longer too large for the
body, the cheeks are full and
rounded, the abdomen is well
developed and natural, the hair is
less stiff , and rounded hips have
replace the V-shaped ridges of the
New York kouros.
Some of the original paint
has survived, giving the
sculpture an even more
naturalistic appearance.
The flesh was left the natural
color of the stone, but the
hair, lips, and eyes were
painted in encaustic (pigment
mixed with hot wax)
The Archaic Period
Titled “Peplos Kore”
because of the peplos that
the figure is wearing. ( a
simple, long, woolen
belted garment that gives
the female figure a
columnar appearance.
This sculpture was
damaged during the sack
of the Acropolis in 480 BC
by the Persians.
This sculpture once
stood as a votive offering
in Athena’s sanctuary.
Peplos Kore
Athens, Greece ca. 530 BC
The Archaic Period
Influence of the Ancient Near East
The Archaic Period
Detail from an Athenian black-figure
amphora created by Exekias
(painter and potter)
Exekias was considered by the
Greeks to have been a Master of
black figure painting.
No series of horizontal bandsinstead a simple large band that
contains the didactic image.
The earliest of these types of vase
paintings were called bilingual due to
their depiction
of the same subject on both sides of
the vase. One in red-figure, and the
other in black-figure.
The “calm before the storm”, a
concept that is repeated throughout
the history of art.
Exekias, Achilles and Ajax playing a dice game.
Vulci, Italy ca. 540 -530 BC
The Archaic Period
Exekias, Death of Ajax.
Vulci, Italy ca. 540 -530 BC
Trojan War
scene
The Archaic Period
Amasis Painter, DIONYSOS WITH MAENADS.
ca. 540 BC
The Archaic Period
Euphronios (Painter), DEATH OF SARPEDON.
ca. 515BC